[POWDER] YAAP Pax-only run

[Visage]

I started this run quite a while ago. Mostly, I got sidetracked doing a lot of random stuff like making myself an army of dragons.

My strategy in the early-game was just to make new characters until I got a book of Healing and then make sure Pax liked me enough to level while killing and eating anything hostile.
As I recall, Pax gave me Endure Hunger on the first or second level, so I was free to do whatever I wanted after that.

The digressing and "sidequesting" happened mostly because I was so ridiculously strong in both physical and magical aspects because of hanging out with Pax all the time.

The ascension took so very long in calendar time because I got pretty discouraged when I realized how annoyingly difficult it would be to move http://puu.sh/p0xpG.png down through several levels.

There was also Zamzam http://puu.sh/p0xxN.png who I really wanted to keep with me, but who picked up random stuff and put it on. Having acquired some unholy water at some point, I decided to curse up some gear so he couldn't change.
Pax didn't like this idea.
He was in the habit of blessing any water I came upon with great prejudice, so much so that I eventually used that pit of water there to drown myself to burn off his action points.
Having drowned myself into Pax's exhaustion, I equipped him with a wizard outfit and gave him a staff of necromancy. with two
Sadly, I eventually gave up on doing anything with him since he would just slow me down and I had got the idea into my head to just go down and grab the heart so I could make an ascension post.

I imagine I may do more shenanigans in the future with this character since I collected the preserved remains of basically every leader enemy in the lower levels.

There wasn't any particularly spectacular artifacts, though the club of freedom was nice and so was the jump boots of breathless.

I made an "artifact" of my own, though. With H'ruth so angry at me all the time, he did a LOT of disenchanting. I made myself a flaming sword early on, and kept it on as a matter of course since seeing helps a lot.
This resulting in the poor thing reaching an "enchantment" of -20 at one point.
This huge negative enchantment did not stop me from brutally murdering a lot of enemies with it, but I got careless by walking over an acid pool and lost it.

I built a number of "fortresses" and item stockpiles, too, though I'm too lazy to screenshot all of them.

On a whim, I did the puzzle for the Library on my way back up; that's why I have 5 unused scrolls of identify just... sitting there.
It was on the way up because I teleported randomly to escape a swarm of enemies after dropping the Heart and ended up in http://puu.sh/p0zBI.png. I'd somewhat like to know why the Library was buried like that.
Dropping the Heart resulted in a "fun" wild-goose chase where I would teleport out and try to find whoever had picked it up.
The first culprit was a unique/named large turtloid who kept trying to eat it. I eventually got him killed, but he lichified. His magic picked a fight for him he didn't win, and I finally reclaimed the Heart from a hapless orange-Goblin.

There's nothing else after the character dump, just FYI.
Character dump:

POWDER 117
Windows Version
Name: Cleric
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Physical: 123/20 (max 123)
Mental: 241/19 (max 241)
AC: 12
X: 159
Depth: 0
96659 moves over 17h22m21s
Score: 1
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Intrinsics:
x Fast
x Cold resistance
x Acid resistance
x Position fixed
x Reflective
x Search
x Breathless
x Walk on water
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Spells:
+ Chain Lightning
+ Regenerate
+ Heal
+ Cure Poison
+ Major Heal
+ Resurrect
+ Summon Familiar
+ Track
+ Wizard's Eye
+ Diagnose
+ Preserve
+ Possess
+ Detect Curse
+ Identify
+ Blink
+ Fetch
+ Teleport
+ Teleport with Control
+ Direct Wind
+ Dig
+ Entomb
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Skills:
+ Evade Traps
+ Endure Hunger
+ Butchery
+ Clean Kill
+ Charge
+ Leap Attack
+ Small Weapons
+ Medium Weapons
+ Large Weapons
+ Ranged Weapons
+ Edged Attacks
+ Blunt Attacks
+ Pointed Attacks
+ Impale
+ True Aim
+ Parry
+ Knock Out
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Equipped Items:
- +2 Iron helm Amyorc on head.
- Evil amulet of reflection around neck.
- +6 Ice mace Frostrelat in right hand.
- +4 Lightning rapier (90) in left hand.
- +1 Mithril chainmail Slugbar over body.
- Ring of cold resistance on right finger.
- Ring of acid resistance on left finger.
- Holy +0 boots of water walking on feet.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Artifacts:
The +2 iron helm Amyorc
This artifact grants search, armour 10.
Melee: 1d4[+1] (cold)
Thrown 2: 1d2[-2] (physical)

The +6 ice mace Frostrelat
This artifact grants breathless.
Melee: 1d4 (cold), +2 (cold), 1d6+1 (physical)
Thrown 2: 1d2[-2] (physical)

The +1 mithril chainmail Slugbar
This artifact grants fast, armour 7.
Melee: 1d2 (physical)
Thrown 2: 1d2[-2] (physical)

The +0 spear Shockfrostorc
This artifact grants shock resistance.
Melee: 2d5+1[+2] (acid), 1d9+1 (physical)
Thrown 4: 2d5+1[+1] (physical), 1d8+2[+1] (physical)

The holy +0 spear Wangbar
This artifact grants light radius 2.
Melee: 1d6+2[+1] (fire), 1d9+1 (physical)
Thrown 5: 2d3+3[+2] (physical), 1d8+2[+1] (physical)

The +0 club Orcrelat
This artifact grants sleep resistance, freedom, walk on water.
Melee: 1d4 (cold), 1d4+1 (physical)
Thrown 2: 1d2[-2] (physical)

The +0 squeaky shoes Upaamy
This artifact grants noisy, jump, armour 2.
Melee: 3[+1] (acid)
Thrown 2: 1d2[-2] (physical)

The evil +0 round shield Frostfrostwere
This artifact grants breathless, armour 3.
Melee: 1d2 (physical)
Thrown 2: 1d2[-2] (physical)

The +0 plate mail Slugupa
This artifact grants teleport control, polymorph, armour 8.
Melee: 1d2 (physical)
Thrown 2: 1d2[-2] (physical)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Inventory Items:
- +2 Iron helm Amyorc.
- Evil amulet of reflection.
- +6 Ice mace Frostrelat.
- +4 Lightning rapier (90).
- +1 Mithril chainmail Slugbar.
- Ring of cold resistance.
- Ring of acid resistance.
- Holy +0 boots of water walking.
- 2 Holy +3 staffs of bolts.
- Evil +0 earth hammer.
- +0 Helm of telepathy.
- +0 Speed boots.
- -3 Plain robe.
- Amulet of life saving.
- Amulet of unchanging.
- 3 Holy +0 knives.
- 14 Holy +0 spears.
- +0 Spear Shockfrostorc.
- Holy +0 spear Wangbar.
- 5 Holy +0 silver spears.
- +0 Club Orcrelat.
- 2 +0 Lightning rapiers (99).
- +0 Bow.
- 16 +0 Arrows.
- +0 Helm of warning.
- Evil +0 helm of draining.
- +0 Helm of telepathy.
- -7 Squeaky shoes.
- +0 Squeaky shoes Upaamy.
- -1 Buckler.
- Evil +0 round shield Frostfrostwere.
- +0 Plate mail Slugupa.
- Holy +0 crystal platemail.
- Holy ring of polymorph.
- Ring of fire resistance.
- Ring of light named light.
- Evil ring of see invisible.
- 2 Scrolls of light.
- 2 Scrolls of identify.
- 5 Holy scrolls of identify.
- Scroll of healing.
- Shocking tome (4).
- Tome of divination (4).
- Familiar tome (3).
- Evil book of bashing (2).
- Holy tome of cold (6).
- Tome of cold (4).
- Evil +3 manual of guile (2).
- Tome of fire (4).
- Holy tome of force (4).
- Holy tome of force (2).
- Holy book of H'ruth (2).
- 4 Potions of blindness.
- 2 Evil acid potions.
- 4 Heal potions.
- 2 Holy potions of enlightenment.
- 2 Potions of enlightenment.
- Poison potion.
- Cure potion.
- 4 Holy mana potions.
- Mana potion.
- Bottle of holy water.
- Bottle of holy water called Speshul.
- Bottle of holy water called another.
- Bottle of unholy water.
- Wand of fire (5).
- Holy wand of teleport (8).
- Holy wand of slowness (8).
- Holy wand of ice (5).
- 2 Holy wands of polymorph (5).
- Holy +3 wand of polymorph (8).
- Wand of polymorph (6).
- Wand of polymorph (7).
- Holy wand of sleep (8).
- Wand of sleep (9).
- Holy wand of speed (7).
- Holy wand of create monster (0).
- Holy wand of digging (7).
- Evil wand of digging (9).
- Wand of trapping (7).
- Wand of invisibility (8).
- Wand of invisibility (5).
- 11 Empty bottles.
- 2 Empty bottles.
- 7 Boulders.
- Evil Baezl'bub's black heart.
- Glowing y-rune.
- Evil preserved Opit'rl the red dragon lich corpse.
- Evil preserved Zamylem the hill orc corpse.
- Holy preserved Bladgor the earth elemental corpse.
- Holy preserved Zamkral the large turtloid corpse.
- Preserved Wazgor the large turtloid corpse.
- Preserved Ylemret the yellow dragon corpse.
- Preserved Retgor the purple tridude bones.

[David Damerell]

Quoting Visage <JOS22...@maricopa.edu>:
>I started this run quite a while ago. Mostly, I got sidetracked doing a
>lot of random stuff like making myself an army of dragons.

Well done! Paxies cannot be the easiest. How did you come to be carrying
all those boulders?
--
David Damerell <dame...@chiark.greenend.org.uk>
If we aren't perfectly synchronised this corncob will explode!
Today is Mania, June.
Tomorrow will be Aponoia, June.

[Visage]

I think I went a little crazy with Fetch. Fetch prooobably shouldn't summon boulders onto the square you're currently in. It allows for some pretty amusing gameplay, though.
I believe there is also an exploit with Jump Attack that can let you do that.

Pax is really difficult to do early game, but his bonuses are so good it's pretty easy once you catch your stride, so to speak.

[David Damerell]

Quoting Visage <jos22...@maricopa.edu>:
>Pax is really difficult to do early game, but his bonuses are so good
>it's pretty easy once you catch your stride, so to speak.

I usually expect POWDER to be like that, even with the easy gods (H'ruth /
Klaskov); characters die early, there's a bit of a spike in the midgame
with stoning deaths and poxy green dragons, but then it's a cruise to the
finish...
--
David Damerell <dame...@chiark.greenend.org.uk> Oil is for sissies
Today is Friday, June.
Tomorrow will be Saturday, June - a weekend.

[artis...@gmail.com]

Usually I repeatedly restart until I get a book of H'ruth for endure hunger (and if I'm lucky, a familiar tome or tome of healing). In one of my Pax-only runs, I befriended some Iron Golems and gave them stuff like wizard outfits with living frost, as well as a daemon who I taught the spell... summon daemon, which was kind of interesting... basically a slimmer version of Baezl'bub at that point.

[artis...@gmail.com]

I remember doing a Pax run in a somewhat similar fashion, only I kept restarting in order to get a book of H'ruth (I think I also got lucky with a familiar tome, too). At some point in the run, I befriended some Iron golems, one of which I gave the wizard outfit+living frost, and the other I gave the fighter outfit and a flaming sword. Additionally, I tamed a daemon, who I taught the spell... summon daemon, which basically made it a slim-version of Baezl'bub.